As 2015 hits its stride, with an ever-growing increase of collectable data and widening of knowledge gaps, effective use of analytics has never been more important.

With 50 billion devices connecting online in the next five years, companies cannot improve their analysis of sales channels and cross-media platforms soon enough. And these digital efforts are compounded when you begin to add data-driven into the mix from your Fitbits, office equipment, home appliances and the myriad other “things” that are beginning to talk to you and each other.

The Winterberry Group has called this the “year of attribution and measurement.” Clearly, sifting through fragments of data from multiple channels is a daunting task and developing a plan for attribution is even harder. You’ll find a lot of grey area in the beginning of these efforts; advanced channel, device and “thing” measurement crosses organizational silos and platforms – and forces your team to assign credit or attribute the impact on sales for multiple interactions.

A dearth or surfeit of data? Is your company suffering from a case of “infobesity” or is your usable data so scant that it’s not worth dissecting? Does any of your data have value? Do you have the skillsets in-house to help you make the findings from your analysis actionable? Smarter measurement and attribution requires dedicated resources and senior buy-in that a data-driven, cross-platform approach can drive a brighter future for the company.

With digital and direct spending reaching $156.8 billion this year in the U.S., attribution and measurement are the path to increased ROI. The technology exists today for even smaller marketers to master a more personalized customer experience across platforms. This effort to create more relevant interactions across devices and media will more quickly attract new customers, hold on to satisfied ones and facilitate increased and higher quality engagement. Every marketer should be experimenting with driving greater impact with microtargeted, highly personalized messaging – from the call to the email to the programmatic ads they see.

In optimizing a customer’s digital, mobile, and social experience, new technologies are pushing us to think and work faster, change our business models, and evolve with our customers’ behavior. This pace of change will, without question, continue expanding for 2015 and for the near future. Winterberry makes 2015 projections for display, mobile, and social – growth of 21.1%, 37.3%, and 31.5%, respectively.

This is not to discount more traditional direct marketing channels in the least. Though not growing at previous rates, it is still alive, growing and well. Direct mail, and Teleservices, account for $90 billion of 2015’s overall marketing spend.

In the “year of attribution and measurement,” strategic thinking is paramount and developing a plan to jump on the omnichannel adoption curve is critical for every marketer.

Stefan Willimann is the CEO of SIGMA Marketing Insights.Follow Stefan on Twitter or connect with him on LinkedIn.

Do More With Your Data.

SIGMA Marketing Insights is a boutique marketing services firm obsessed with the customer experience, and driven to turn data into a powerful tool that will deliver more relevant, personalized interaction and engagement across all channels.